How archetypes help us with non-duality
Non duality is a very important principle of many philosophical traditions. And non duality is considered to be something to aspire for. Because it is said that when we can move beyond divisions of liking something or disliking something, or whether something is right and wrong or good and evil, then we are also able to come into a space that is more compassionate, less judgmental, something that is much more harmonious and more uniting rather than something where we judge not only other people, but also ourselves. However, non-duality is not a space that could always be very comfortable, it is a space that comes with experiences of unease or being unsettled.
For example, just consider in our everyday lives, when we are confronted with two propositions, and we have to decide which side we are on, if we find ourselves unable to make that decision, and if we find ourselves in that in between space, it's a very difficult space to be in. In our times, we are always asked are you for something or are you against something? And in order to say, well, I am not sure, and I'm just happy to be in the space of inquiry, or I'm happy to be in a space where perhaps I agree with some things here and some things there, or I disagree with some things here and disagree with some things there—that that is not a not an easy space. And it's not a space that is available to us, because we are really dominated by our mind, our mental lenses, which are always about duality. So when we come into the space of unease or being unsettled, they're not benign spaces, they make us feel really uncomfortable.
Sometimes they can even make us move into things like mockery or contempt, because we feel like we must sign up to something. And we then get contemptuous or mocking about things that are on the other side. Again, these are not very benign sensations, they can actually lead to brutality and to violence and other kinds of actions.
The ancient archetypal traditions were cognizant of the fact that non duality, and the spaces of multi dimensionality, comes with this experience of unease, and that is why many of them had creative, artistic or aesthetic, ceremonial and ritual ways of experiencing and inquiring into these spaces.
Why is multi-dimensionality or non-duality important? Because reality itself or the consciousness, that is reality is multi-dimensional, it is not dual. There are many things which are polarities, which coexist in the same moment and in the same space. So being able to attend, to have a quality of attention and an intelligence that mirrors this multi-dimensionality is very important for us, if we want to be in that union, or in that state of fullness of our consciousness.
Archetypal traditions provided us with stories or narratives of deities, through which we could explore this multi dimensionality. And because they were enjoyable and creative, they were celebratory. And it took away that sense of not being safe in these spaces. And that way, we could find out what is the intelligence of non-duality, what it offers to us as the truth about reality.